THE ONE WHO GETS IT:

Clinton Joins Democrats' Values Push (LUIZA Ch. SAVAGE, April 8, 2005, NY Sun)

Congress should pass legislation protecting religious liberties in the workplace, and America should help Iraqis write a constitution that will respect freedom of conscience even if it is "against their traditions," Senator Clinton said yesterday.

"Religious liberty is one of the most important issues on the world's agenda today," Mrs. Clinton told the Religious Liberty Annual Dinner of the Seventh day Adventist Church.

Freedom of conscience is often "a bellwether for human rights," she said.

The senator's religiously themed speech comes as Democrats seek to identify anew with the "moral values" that were said to play a role in the Republican victories in November's election.

The senator's strong endorsement of legislation that is opposed by some abortion-rights and gay-rights groups is likely to add to speculation that she is moving to the political center ahead of a potential 2008 presidential candidacy. But the issue of religious liberty is one she has championed consistently since arriving in the Senate.

Elected in 2000, Mrs. Clinton has been one of only a handful of bipartisan co-sponsors of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which would require employers to accommodate their employees' religious observances when reasonably possible. Critics say the law could enable religious zealots to discriminate against or harass gay workers or interfere with women's access to birth control or abortion.

The bill was introduced again last month by Senator Kerry of Massachusetts and Senator Santorum, a Republican of Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Clinton is again a co-sponsor. Senator Schumer, too, has come to back the bill.

"I hope that this year will be the year that we will be successful in passing this," Mrs. Clinton said in a speech that garnered a standing ovation from the approximately 200 people who were dining in a marble-walled Senate room. [...]

The executive director of the North American Religious Liberty Association, James Standish, praised Mrs. Clinton as a "true friend" to people who are punished on account of their faith.

He introduced her as "truly a historic figure" who may "not be finished making history," in an allusion to a possible presidential run. [...]

Mrs. Clinton is the first Democrat to address the gathering in its three-year history. Republicans headlined the two prior annual dinners: Rep. Christopher Smith of New Jersey and Senator Brownback of Kansas. [...]

While the legislation is backed by a variety of religious groups, critics continue to hope Mrs. Clinton would be willing to narrow it.

"We think the bill that Clinton is a co-sponsor of is too broadly drafted and could have consequences that could make it difficult for employers to stop people from proselytizing on the job or hanging up anti-gay Biblical quotes on their cubicles," the legislative director of the gay-rights advocacy group, Human Rights Campaign, Christopher Labonte, said.

Now she just needs to vote the way she's talking.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 8, 2005 6:09 AM